Compare and Contrast

American dream echoes the questions that Whitman had about whether America can live up to its promise , however it tends to be far more realistic in its meaning . Both short poems by Whitman and Hughes are about America and end with a question mark , but Hughes poem suggests that America can no longer sustain the status quo . By wondering if the dream will explode , he discusses either the destruction of the American dream completely , or maybe the cultural and political explosion of those that are denied the dream . This realism of the

situation is far more aggressive than the poetry of Whitman , though would not have been possible without the boundaries that Whitman had challenged with his own brand of early realism

While Dream Deferred ' and Long , Too Long America ' are each similar in form , Hughes shows one of Whitman 's key traits in his poem through the use of unpleasant imagery and realistic depictions . While Hughes speaks of rotten meat ' in his poem , in Whitman 's poems like Song of Myself ' his imagery is dramatic and real : The smoke of my own breath / Echoes , ripples , buzz 'd whispers , love-root , silk-thread crotch and vine / My respiration and inspiration , the beating of my heart , the passing / of blood and air through my lungs / The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves , and of the shore and / dark-color 'd sea-rocks , and of hay in the barn ' In Hughes , similar dramatic and anatomical imagery is used often . In The Negro Speaks of Rivers while speaking of the trials and tribulations of his black forefathers Hughes uses the same type of natural imagery and realistic s I 've known rivers / I 've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the / flow of human blood in human veins / My soul has grown deep...